In his heartwrenching followup to 20 Days in Mariupol, photojournalist Mstyslav Chernov is embedded with the 3rd Assault Brigade during a gruelling counteroffensive
Two years ago, the Ukrainian photojournalist and film-maker Mstyslav Chernov stunned us with his eyewitness documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, about Russia’s brutal assault on the southern Ukrainian port city. His new film is if anything more visceral, with waking-nightmare images captured in pin-sharp 4K digital clarity. It is a moment-by-moment account of his experience embedded with Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade in 2023 (one of them appears to be a Brit) during Zelenskyy’s highly anticipated counteroffensive, making a gruelling journey along what amounts to a two-kilometre corridor of “forest”.
In fact, it is scrubland offering no real cover – but it is free of Russian mines, unlike the areas of farmland either side. The forces brutally fight every metre of the way, heading for the symbolic liberation of the largely ruined village of Andriivka in north-eastern Ukraine. They are carrying a precious Ukrainian flag, and it is their mission to fix this to any broken bit of wall they can find, to proclaim their national spirit is not dead. They are in a wasteland, as one says: “It’s like landing on a planet where everyone is trying to kill you. But it’s the middle of Europe.”
